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Kindness: the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

September 30, 2014

According to an article “Doing Good Deeds” in Oprah, author Joan Duncan Oliver illustrates that simple acts of kindness lead not only make ourselves feel good, but inspire others to do the same. Research shows that there is a physical reaction to people witnessing “good” being done around them. This creates a ripple effect – it’s catchy!

Research by Jonathan Haidt, PhD, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Virginia coined the term elevation to describe the emotion we feel when we encounter evidence of what he calls moral beauty.

“Any time you make an effort to do something good, you may benefit not just the person you help but also those who witness your act. We don’t feel elevation from thinking about charity,” he emphasizes. “We feel it from seeing someone do something charitable.”